Dana White and his friends definitely know how to take care of each other.
The UFC CEO shared an Instagram Story from this past weekend in which he revealed that he received a $500,000 gift in the form of gambling chips courtesy of SteveWillDoIt (a.k.a. Stephen Deleonardis) of the Nelk Boys and Barstool Sports’ Taylor Lewan.
Watch White’s account of the evening below (video courtesy of @jedigoodman).
According to White, Deleonardis and Lewan didn’t simply scrape up $500K out of their couch cushions. The two allegedly worked their way up from $10,000 in chips to the six-figure number before meeting with White at Red Rock Casino in Las Vegas.
“These two just won a half a million dollars,” White said. “These are $25,000 chips, half a million dollars, and gave it to me. They are f****** lunatics. They started with $10,000 and went on a mission to win me a half a million dollars and they did it. It’s f****** unbelievable.
“Any of you know that really actually gamble, the odds of winning half a million dollars off of $10,000 has got to be a f******* 1,000,000-to-1. It’s f****** impossible. Literally impossible. They did it.”
This isn’t the first time that White and the Nelk Boys have made headlines for a generous exchange of gifts. In December 2021, Deleonardis gave White a custom Maybach van worth an estimated $300,000. That show of appreciation was reciprocated in July 2022 when White gave $250,000 in cash to Nelk Boy Kyle Forgeard as a birthday present, a gesture that drew criticism from the MMA community in relation to ongoing criticism over UFC fighter compensation.
White later brushed off the criticism and blamed the media for stirring up controversy.
“Let me set this record straight: First of all, all these people on the internet, go f*** yourself,” White said on The Pat McAfee Show. “I spend my money however the f*** I want to spend my money. Mind your own f****** business, No. 1.
“No. 2, if you look at what Kyle and the Nelk Boys have done as far as Howler Head and a lot of other things that they’ve done, those kids have never asked me for anything, ever. Never asked me for anything, and they couldn’t be better people; Kyle has done so many things for me, and believe me, the $250,000 that I have him for his birthday does not cover the amount of things that that kid has done for me. So don’t count other people’s money, and mind your own f****** business.”
